a muddled & woolly book
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What a waste of a potentially interesting topic!
He says that he is unable to afford to buy a house in the country in England,but paradoxically he describes the 'shack' he bought in Majorca for £7000,for which he then spent 620,000 euros for a stone water tank!!!
2 pages later he then states how he has to go off-grid because he can't afford the £250,000 for a cottage in the uk! Am i missing something?
Thats just 1 example of the many inconsistencies that riddle this book.
Rather annoyingly,he omits any useful list of related websites,apart from his own!
Avoid,fortunately,i got my copy from the library.
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The off-grid reader
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There are lots of ways of living off the grid. The most familiar ones are narrow boats on our urban canals, caravans, and traveller or gypsy communities, and of course remote farms. Less well known are the communes, the renewable energy pioneers, the backwoodsmen and hermits. In his own off-grid converted bus, Nick Rosen travels the country to interview these various types. He meets a man with seventeen children, an armed survivalist community in an old manor house, gypsies, horse breeders, millionaires and subsistence farmers. Most of the book details this adventure. In fact, over half the book is one long chapter called 'meet the people'.
The diversity is fascinating, and there are different things to learn from each. Unfortunately, the author gives more or less equal amounts of time to each project. I found myself skimming ahead over more hippies in the woods, and wishing there was more on some of the more practical social experiments. A little editing wouldn't have gone amiss, choosing the best cases from the thirty or so here and exploring them in more depth. The book could stand to lose some of the travel detail too - some sections narrate little anecdotes, like how Nick got his van stuck in a ditch on the way to see someone, leaving only a paragraph at the end to talk about the project itself when he finally gets there.
After meeting the people, the rest of the book deals with more specific issues. There are chapters on generating your own electricity, sections on water, toilets, and buying land, and some good advice on planning permission. There are asides too, into foraging, the pros and cons of living in a commune, and histories of the grid.
If you're after a practical manual for off-grid living, this isn't it, despite the title. This is more of a source book of ideas, an inspiration for off-grid living. For the detail, see Rosen's extensive website, off-grid.net.
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SUPERB - BUY IT !
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great book, i have just started reading it, a great way to learn about some of the issues and see how people are going off grid in different ways
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How to live a little off the grid
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A great book overall and I personally enjoyed Nick's style of writing. Good read with some interesting characters that crossed many boundaries and gave numerous personal insights into living fully off grid or just attempting to. I also thought it was a good adventure to carry out.
If you are already off grid or are planning to do so in the near future then this book may not be for you (though it does highlight some pitfalls). This book is not a diy guide on how to off-grid. If you sometimes head to the hills or are thinking about how you can make some sensible decisions that reduce your reliance on the power companies get this book.
This book has further encouraged me on the path of examining how I can become a little more independent and hopefully reduce my excessive use of resources.
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Essential Reading
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In How to Live Off-Grid, Nick Rosen investigates the possibilities and difficulties of living an off-grid lifestyle (no mains water and no mains power) in the UK.
This is not a typical "How To" guide to off-gridding although the book is packed with useful information. Instead the main focus of the book is on real people living an off-grid life - their motivations, their struggles, their problems, and their solutions.
In the 120 page Chapter 4: Meet the People, Nick Rosen tells the story of his own journey around the UK in his newly purchased camper van meeting off-gridders from all walks of life who are living off-grid with varying levels of success and for a range of different reasons.
These short stories give a fascinating look into the often difficult world of the off-gridder: seemingly a constant struggle against council planners, neighbours, and the elements. Living an off-grid existence is rarely easy, but is shown to be hugely fulfilling.
The rest of the book comprises chapters on generating power, obtaining water, and building shelter. In addition a chapter entitled We Were All Off Grid Once tells the story of how we ended up on-grid in the first place and looks into the main motivations for people to move off-grid today: environmentalism, post-consumerism, rising energy prices, water shortages, rising house prices, fear, and the availability of new technology.
How to Live Off-Grid is information packed and very easy and entertaining to read. The real world practicalities of living off-grid in the UK today are well covered in this unique and well researched book.
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